What I've been reading: Books No. 39 & 40
Aug. 22nd, 2019 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sarahmichiganNo. 39 was "My Left Foot" by Christy Brown. Note: Readers who are more familiar with the modern approach to disability and disability rights might find parts of this book troubling. For instance, the paperback version's blurb says Brown was "born a victim of cerebral palsy," which is not a term modern disability rights advocates would approve of. However, it does give great first-person insight into the life of a man living with disability in an extremely poor, large (middle child of 13 surviving children) Irish family before modern disability rights legislation.
He's written off as mentally defective by most, but his mother persists in believing he had a bright brain despite his physical challenges. The name of the book comes from the fact that he first teaches himself to write with a piece of chalk held in his left foot. The stories of how his brothers treat him like one of the rest of the guys in childhood, toting him around on their backs or in a cart during childhood hijinks, are fun. I loved and laughed through the section where he talks about his first attempts to write his autobiography, full of purple prose inspired by his obsession with Dickens.
He is disappointed when a trip to Lourdes doesn't bring him a cure, and is thrilled when doctors promise him a medical cure. Of course, he is NOT cured because that's bunk (and I felt a little angry at his doctors for promising him one) but he does receive physiotherapy that expands his range of motion and improves his quality of life. It leaves off with a charity concert featuring Burl Ives, with proceeds benefiting the local cerebral palsy foundation, and Brown's doctor reads the story that makes up the first chapter of the memoir so that audience members can get a firsthand insight into the life of someone living with CP.
Despite the fact that it's a bit dated and a somewhat sentimental, I really enjoy first-person narratives by disabled people, as opposed to literature written about disabled folks from the point of view of able-bodied people. I can see why this book is well-loved and stands the test of time.
No. 40 was "Boy, Snow, Bird" by Helen Oyeyemi. I can see why critics and GoodsReads members are so divided about this book. Critics seem to mostly love it, while GoodReads ratings range from 1-star to 5-star and everything in between. It's a novel by Helen Oyeyemi, who is of Nigerian descent but who grew up in Britain, and she brings that sense of being of more than one world to this novel.
It starts with the story of Boy Novak, a young woman who escapes an abusive home where she lives with The Rat-catcher, and flees to a small New England town full of artisans. She becomes involved with and marries an artisan named Arturo Whitman and becomes fascinated with his daughter, Snow, from a previous marriage. The story takes a left turn shortly after this, and there's yet another twist at the end, but I can't say more without major spoilers. I think the fact that this is marketed as "a retelling of the Snow White" myth does the book a disservice. I think it sets readers up for something that this book just isn't, and that contributes to a lot of the negative reviews. Themes from "Snow White" appear, and there are bits of magical realism to the story, but it certainly is NOT a "retelling of Snow White."
My main gripe is that we're supposed to believe this is a book set in the 1950s and 60s, but early on, Boy Novak and her friend Mina talk about a fairy tale that involves a witch and a cassava field that feels like it's right out of Nigeria. I can't believe that ONE American white person of the 1950s would know that story so well, much less two. Also, the snippets from Mina's "articles" are ridiculous. I am a journalist, and I know that journalistic tropes have changed over time, but Mina's pieces would NEVER run in any paper or magazine anywhere as mainstream journalism. They might make the society pages or the editorial page, but even that is doubtful. These things threw me out of the "willing suspension of disbelief" but I liked the characters well enough and was intrigued about how things would turn out, so that kept me reading.
I do recommend this book, but try to avoid reviews and summaries and just go in with an open mind. I think readers will enjoy it better that way.
1. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang [fiction]- Kate Wilhelm.
2. Dandelion Wine [fiction]- Ray Bradbury
3. The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness [nonfiction/memoir]- Elyn R. Saks
4. The Underground Railroad [fiction]- Colson Whitehead (unabridged audiobook)
5. The Stranger's Child [fiction]- Alan Hollinghurst
6. Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How To Create A More Peaceful, Simpler Life From the Inside Out [non-fiction]- Richard Carlson and Joseph Bailey
7. Toussaint Louverture: A Revolutionary Life [nonfiction/biography]- Philippe Girard
8. All Our Wrong Todays [fiction]- Elan Mastai (unabridged audiobook)
9. The Bonesetter's Daughter [fiction]- Amy Tan
10. Gather Her Round" (Tufa series #5) [fiction]- Alex Bledsoe
11. I Was #87: A Deaf Woman's Ordeal of Misdiagnosis, Institutionalization, and Abuse [nonfiction/memoir]- Anne M. Bolander
12. We Were the Mulvaneys [fiction]- Joyce Carol Oates
13. The Unicorn [fiction]- Iris Murdoch
14. Provenance [fiction]- Ann Leckie
15. The Moon and the Sun [fiction]- Vonda McIntyre (unabridged audiobook)
16. The Fairies of Sadieville [fiction]- Alex Bledsoe
17. Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out [nonfiction/fiction/poetry/anthology]- ed. Kenny Fries
18. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [fiction]- Anonymous (Penguin Classics edition)
19. Autonomous [fiction]- Annalee Newitz
20. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race [nonfiction]- Margot Lee Shetterly (unabridged audiobook)
21. Cold Comfort (Officer Gunnhildur #2) [fiction]- Quentin Bates
22. Invisible Man [fiction]- Ralph Ellison
23. The Witch Elm [fiction]- Tana French (unabridged audiobook)
24. Cloudsplitter [fiction]- Russell Banks
25. Barracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo' [nonfiction]- Zora Neale Hurston (unabridged audiobook)
26. Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) [fiction]- Louise Penny
27. The Story of My Life [nonfiction/memoir]- Helen Keller (unabridged audiobook)
28. Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology [fiction/short stories]- ed. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
29. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide [nonfiction]- Carol Anderson
30. Lovecraft Country [fiction]- Matt Ruff
31. Priestdaddy: A Memoir [nonfiction/memoir]- Patricia Lockwood
32. Heartsick (Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell #1) [fiction]- Chelsea Cain (unabridged audiobook)
33. A Door Into Ocean [fiction]- Joan Slonczewski
34. The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches from the Border [nonfiction/memoir]- Francisco Cantú
35. The Ballad of Black Tom [fiction]- Victor LaValle
36. Claire of the Sea Light [fiction]- Edwidge Danticat (unabridged audiobook)
37. Americanah [fiction]- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
38. All the Birds in the Sky [fiction]- Charlie Jane Anders
He's written off as mentally defective by most, but his mother persists in believing he had a bright brain despite his physical challenges. The name of the book comes from the fact that he first teaches himself to write with a piece of chalk held in his left foot. The stories of how his brothers treat him like one of the rest of the guys in childhood, toting him around on their backs or in a cart during childhood hijinks, are fun. I loved and laughed through the section where he talks about his first attempts to write his autobiography, full of purple prose inspired by his obsession with Dickens.
He is disappointed when a trip to Lourdes doesn't bring him a cure, and is thrilled when doctors promise him a medical cure. Of course, he is NOT cured because that's bunk (and I felt a little angry at his doctors for promising him one) but he does receive physiotherapy that expands his range of motion and improves his quality of life. It leaves off with a charity concert featuring Burl Ives, with proceeds benefiting the local cerebral palsy foundation, and Brown's doctor reads the story that makes up the first chapter of the memoir so that audience members can get a firsthand insight into the life of someone living with CP.
Despite the fact that it's a bit dated and a somewhat sentimental, I really enjoy first-person narratives by disabled people, as opposed to literature written about disabled folks from the point of view of able-bodied people. I can see why this book is well-loved and stands the test of time.
No. 40 was "Boy, Snow, Bird" by Helen Oyeyemi. I can see why critics and GoodsReads members are so divided about this book. Critics seem to mostly love it, while GoodReads ratings range from 1-star to 5-star and everything in between. It's a novel by Helen Oyeyemi, who is of Nigerian descent but who grew up in Britain, and she brings that sense of being of more than one world to this novel.
It starts with the story of Boy Novak, a young woman who escapes an abusive home where she lives with The Rat-catcher, and flees to a small New England town full of artisans. She becomes involved with and marries an artisan named Arturo Whitman and becomes fascinated with his daughter, Snow, from a previous marriage. The story takes a left turn shortly after this, and there's yet another twist at the end, but I can't say more without major spoilers. I think the fact that this is marketed as "a retelling of the Snow White" myth does the book a disservice. I think it sets readers up for something that this book just isn't, and that contributes to a lot of the negative reviews. Themes from "Snow White" appear, and there are bits of magical realism to the story, but it certainly is NOT a "retelling of Snow White."
My main gripe is that we're supposed to believe this is a book set in the 1950s and 60s, but early on, Boy Novak and her friend Mina talk about a fairy tale that involves a witch and a cassava field that feels like it's right out of Nigeria. I can't believe that ONE American white person of the 1950s would know that story so well, much less two. Also, the snippets from Mina's "articles" are ridiculous. I am a journalist, and I know that journalistic tropes have changed over time, but Mina's pieces would NEVER run in any paper or magazine anywhere as mainstream journalism. They might make the society pages or the editorial page, but even that is doubtful. These things threw me out of the "willing suspension of disbelief" but I liked the characters well enough and was intrigued about how things would turn out, so that kept me reading.
I do recommend this book, but try to avoid reviews and summaries and just go in with an open mind. I think readers will enjoy it better that way.
1. Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang [fiction]- Kate Wilhelm.
2. Dandelion Wine [fiction]- Ray Bradbury
3. The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness [nonfiction/memoir]- Elyn R. Saks
4. The Underground Railroad [fiction]- Colson Whitehead (unabridged audiobook)
5. The Stranger's Child [fiction]- Alan Hollinghurst
6. Slowing Down to the Speed of Life: How To Create A More Peaceful, Simpler Life From the Inside Out [non-fiction]- Richard Carlson and Joseph Bailey
7. Toussaint Louverture: A Revolutionary Life [nonfiction/biography]- Philippe Girard
8. All Our Wrong Todays [fiction]- Elan Mastai (unabridged audiobook)
9. The Bonesetter's Daughter [fiction]- Amy Tan
10. Gather Her Round" (Tufa series #5) [fiction]- Alex Bledsoe
11. I Was #87: A Deaf Woman's Ordeal of Misdiagnosis, Institutionalization, and Abuse [nonfiction/memoir]- Anne M. Bolander
12. We Were the Mulvaneys [fiction]- Joyce Carol Oates
13. The Unicorn [fiction]- Iris Murdoch
14. Provenance [fiction]- Ann Leckie
15. The Moon and the Sun [fiction]- Vonda McIntyre (unabridged audiobook)
16. The Fairies of Sadieville [fiction]- Alex Bledsoe
17. Staring Back: The Disability Experience from the Inside Out [nonfiction/fiction/poetry/anthology]- ed. Kenny Fries
18. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight [fiction]- Anonymous (Penguin Classics edition)
19. Autonomous [fiction]- Annalee Newitz
20. Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race [nonfiction]- Margot Lee Shetterly (unabridged audiobook)
21. Cold Comfort (Officer Gunnhildur #2) [fiction]- Quentin Bates
22. Invisible Man [fiction]- Ralph Ellison
23. The Witch Elm [fiction]- Tana French (unabridged audiobook)
24. Cloudsplitter [fiction]- Russell Banks
25. Barracoon: The Story of the Last 'Black Cargo' [nonfiction]- Zora Neale Hurston (unabridged audiobook)
26. Still Life (Chief Inspector Armand Gamache #1) [fiction]- Louise Penny
27. The Story of My Life [nonfiction/memoir]- Helen Keller (unabridged audiobook)
28. Sisters of the Revolution: A Feminist Speculative Fiction Anthology [fiction/short stories]- ed. Ann and Jeff VanderMeer
29. White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide [nonfiction]- Carol Anderson
30. Lovecraft Country [fiction]- Matt Ruff
31. Priestdaddy: A Memoir [nonfiction/memoir]- Patricia Lockwood
32. Heartsick (Archie Sheridan & Gretchen Lowell #1) [fiction]- Chelsea Cain (unabridged audiobook)
33. A Door Into Ocean [fiction]- Joan Slonczewski
34. The Line Becomes A River: Dispatches from the Border [nonfiction/memoir]- Francisco Cantú
35. The Ballad of Black Tom [fiction]- Victor LaValle
36. Claire of the Sea Light [fiction]- Edwidge Danticat (unabridged audiobook)
37. Americanah [fiction]- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
38. All the Birds in the Sky [fiction]- Charlie Jane Anders
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Date: 2019-08-22 06:26 pm (UTC)